This Sunday, eat brunch at one Chicago spot out to prove that you can still catch disco fever.

At the beginning of every month, the staff of Ann Sather restaurant spends five days transforming the cozy Lakeview breakfast nook, just off the Red Line’s Addison stop, into an oasis of 1970s nostalgia.

Mike Midgette, 42, the manager at Ann Sather, plasters nearly every inch of the Swedish restaurant’s graffiti-painted walls with posters and signs reminiscent of ’70s pop culture. Gold fringe adorns the windows, while star cutouts, records and a mirrored disco ball hang from the ceiling.

It all leads up to the first Sunday of the month, when hungry Chicagoans turn out for “Disco Brunch,” Ann Sather’s tribute to all things boogie.

“I love Disco Brunch,” says Stephanie Howell, 38, a regular who lives around the corner from the restaurant’s Broadway Café location (the other three Ann Sather locations don’t do Disco Brunch). “I love the atmosphere, the iconic faces of the disco era, and the music.”

Howell isn’t alone. The brunch, started almost two years ago, has become a tradition for many. Midgette estimates that about a thousand people come through the door at 3411 N. Broadway St. between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. for a typical Disco Brunch.

Midgette says the idea came from living through the disco era and knowing that the music would draw people of all ages.

“It’s fun music,” Midgette says. “It appeals to everyone, from toddlers up to seniors.”

When Ann Sather held their first Disco Brunch in December 2005, “it just seemed right,” Midgette says, and since then, Disco Brunch sales have been steadily increasing. Many customers return every month just for the event, and some even wait to celebrate their birthdays or anniversaries on a Disco Brunch Sunday.

“It kind of breaks the monotony of just coming to brunch,” says David Torres, 34, an Edgewater resident who attended October’s brunch. “I think they should do it more often.”

Restaurant-goers dine to classics such as Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” and Patti LaBelle’s “Lady Marmalade.” Even menu specials are part of the act: In October, the restaurant offered the disco inferno omelet, the Y.M.C. Eggwich and the jive turkey wrap, in addition to its sinfully gooey cinnamon rolls and other fare.

Waiters wear garish silk shirts, provided by Midgette. And customers often don their disco threads, too: Both Howell and Midgette say they’ve seen customers strut their stuff in elaborate get-ups.

“We’ve had four or five tables get up and start dancing at the same time,” Midgette says. “It was a lot of fun.”

See what Brody had to say about the movie in our audio slideshow, or click to read parts of the interview that weren’t included in the slideshow.

How was the transition from The O.C. to film?

Adam: When you’re on the set, it’s just a camera and dialogue, and it’s really what happens after that that really differentiates. Film is a slightly more detailed, collaborative process, because you’re allowed a lot more time per scene. It’s fun and it’s a little more serious, maybe. For The O.C., I could go on autopilot so easily; this I was a little more present, I suppose.

How do you compare your role in this movie and your role as a drug-dealer in the upcoming film Smiley Face?

Adam: That makes it sound as if I’m in a drama; I’m in a comedy about pot. I don’t ever think of it like I played a drug dealer.
Jon: He’s unrecognizable in that movie. You’re going to have to be really paying attention.
Adam: So, they’re super different. And I also did them a year and a half apart, so there’s no comparison. They’re as different as night and day.

How did you come up with the idea for the script?

Jon: It’s the kind of movie that I really like. I’m a big Jerry Maguire fan, I’m a big Say Anything fan; those are the kinds of movies I really like. In fact, there are references to those kinds of movies in [In the Land of Women]. And they’re not something people are making a lot of in Hollywood right now.

We heard you wrote an advice column for women in high school…

Jon: That is sort of inaccurate, and it only goes further to perpetuate the myth of my cross-gender lifestyle. But it wasn’t so much that I wrote an advice column. To be specific, it was that I wrote a column for my school paper that was a very personal kind of nonfiction writing about being a teenager and about what that was like. I wrote very literally about the people I knew and in my school and such. But I never used any of their names, so it became this very popular thing. Every time the newspaper came out, it was like tuning in to a soap opera that was like my version of how things were going down. It’s like Sex and the City! Yeah, that’s exactly what it was. It was an enormous power.

What’s the story behind the movie’s title?

Jon: At NYU, I did a photo thesis [of the same name] on various images of women in repose; women in their life, kind of quietly. And when I finished this script, it was something I remembered. I do think that the central idea of the movie is a guy who is preoccupied with women and fascinated with women and sort of enamored of women, and yet he doesn’t understand them at all and keeps discovering that again and again. Here’s this guy who is making an effort to escape this thing that has been the focus of his life and ends up being even more immersed in it.

What was it like to work with Meg Ryan and Olympia Dukakis?

Adam: Well, it was fantastic. I mean, first and foremost, they’re really good actors, and any time you get a chance to work with good actors, it only makes you better and makes you look worse, simultaneously. So that was fun, and — Jon’s family can do this, but I can’t: Meg can just pop off a story about Oliver Stone, and it’s true. It’s personal. It’s not even bragging. It’s completely part of their life and relevant to the conversation. [Their stories] just happen to be about Oliver Stone, or Tom Cruise or whatever.
Jon: Ah, I remember that weekend with Tom and me. Noodle salad.
Adam: Well, hey, Jon does have a personal anecdote about almost everyone in Hollywood via him or his family. And I’m getting there, but I’ve got a lot of catching up to do.
Jon: But it’s a curse, too, because you try to meet new people, or girls, and they already have an opinion about you. They’ve heard shit about you. It’s terrible.

Do you have any other projects in the works?

Adam: Well I’m sure he’s thinking about lots of things, being a writer…
Jon: We want to write a movie together that wouldn’t be for Adam, necessarily. We have another idea that maybe Adam would play a role in, but it’s the kind of thing we’re interested in. Something a little more out-and-out entertainment than this movie.
Adam: Yeah, there’s always something to talk about, but I have confidence that he’ll actually do it and I’ll just sort of think about it.

What are you listening to right now?

Adam: I’m listening to a lot of older stuff right now, actually. I’m listening to some new stuff, but I’m not on the forefront. I don’t know what comes out. It’s just that four or five years ago, the indie music wasn’t as mainstream, and there just wasn’t nearly as many bands, volume-wise. And not because of [The O.C.], but in conjunction with the show a little bit, that scene has sort of taken off, and there’s so many new bands. So I’ve actually started to look a little elsewhere, too: I’ve been listening to a lot of ‘80s stuff. And also, new bands lately, it’s been all French Kicks. I love that album so much. I have the new Modest Mouse and I really want to open that; I just haven’t yet. I like the dancier stuff lately: French Kicks, Modest Mouse; it’s a little less folk-y and a little more pop-y. I like that.

You helped launch a lot of bands on The O.C. Have you had very much say in the music for In the Land of Women or other projects?

Adam: Well, fortunately on both The O.C. and In the Land of Women we have great, cutting-edge music supervisors. So as far as the soundtrack, it’s really Jon and our music supervisor, who is great and hipper than I am.
Jon: Although I will say, that movie really reflects my taste in music. But there is a moment at the very end of the movie, for the second-to-last major song cue, an INXS song called “Beautiful Girl.” Adam found that song.
Adam: Yeah, I just try to be as helpful as I can. And then the trailer is a different sort of animal. I saw a rough cut of the trailer years ago and it was like Dido and Coldplay and David Gray, and it was all temp stuff; it wasn’t a real trailer yet. But still, I was like ‘Look, let me give you some suggestions. It’s not cutting edge, it’s like old Nada Surf, old Rilo Kiley.’ But I’m like ‘It’ll be way cheaper and it’ll be just as Coldplay-y, but more original and it’d cost you literally tens of thousands of dollars less.’ And fortunately, they used some of it, which I’m so grateful for. They were really nice to listen to anything I had to say, to be quite honest. You don’t really have a say. The moviemaking and the advertising are handled by different people, and I always thought that was odd because more people see the advertising.
Jon: It’s how you’re presenting the thing to the world.
Adam: Sometimes much more is spent on the advertising than the budget of the movie, and so it’s like strangers are hired to make a new movie out of your movie.
Jon: The movie certainly has an element in it that is about romance, so people sort of relate to the idea of romance, then I think that [the poster] communicates certainly some romance.
Adam: Yeah, and at the end of the day, I think it is a good movie and it does revolve around love, so even though it’s not a straight-ahead love story as that would indicate, I hope that people won’t be pissed. But I think they’ll still leave hopefully having felt like they saw a good movie.

Have either of you spent very much time in Chicago? What do you think of it?

Jon: Neither Adam nor I had ever been to Chicago before yesterday and we have to leave in like two hours!
Adam: We’re dying. We want to see it! We want to see it!
Jon: It’s so beautiful-looking, especially since I have spent a lot of time in Detroit. I like it there; it’s beautiful suburbs. But the town is so ugly. And this is just the most culturally interesting place. I wish I could see Northwestern and all that; it seems like it’s a great campus.

“They were so organized that they had home and away t-shirts,” Blagojevich said. “They had white on blue, or you could get blue on white.”

But Blagojevich, who graduated from Weinberg in 1979, received a warmer welcome when he spoke to about 150 people at Fisk Hall at 5 p.m. on Wednesday. Northwestern’s Political Action Organization (PAO), a new group founded by Weinberg juniors Andrew Madigan and Daniel Schaffer, sponsored the event. Madigan is the son of Illinois Speaker of the House Michael Madigan, a friend and colleague of Blagojevich.

“I’ve known Andrew since he was eight years old,” Blagojevich said. “I’m a big fan of the whole Madigan family.”

Blagojevich jokingly recalls an encounter with former Pres. Bill Clinton:

“The phrase ‘pursuit of happiness’ to me means you’ve got a right to good healthcare,” Blagojevich said. “For me, the way to pay for healthcare and education is to make these big corporations pay their fair share.”

Read more about Blagojevich’s Gross Receipts Tax proposal.

Blagojevich encouraged students to get involved in the political process, consistent with the stated mission of PAO.

“The changes you’ll make and force in our society are significant,” Blagojevich said.

Blagojevich said the country can’t rely on federal officials to solve problems with healthcare. He has made the issue a priority for his second term.

“This is an administration that is not interested in consolidating the healthcare crisis, and I think it would be disingenuous and almost cynical to fall back on that,” he said.

Instead, Blagojevich stressed the need for change at the state level.

“I don’t believe I was elected to simply blame others when you can actually do something when you’re the governor,” he said.

Evanston Mayor Lorraine Morton and Blagojevich exchange words.

Evanston Mayor Lorraine Morton introduced the governor. She reminded students that Blagojevich was once in their place as a Northwestern student.

Blagojevich took time at the end to answer a few questions, including why he didn’t support House Bill 750 (a rival tax bill) and how he would make a college education more affordable. To the latter, Blagojevich vowed to put more pressure on higher education officials and fight for a freshman tuition freeze.

Although his speech largely focused on healthcare and his Gross Receipt Tax proposal, Blagojevich also shared a few humorous anecdotes from his political career. His conversational tone prompted several moments of laughter from the audience.

Blagojevich remembers a trip to Yugoslavia with Rev. Jesse Jackson:

Photos by Tom Nunlist

The conversation was sponsored by the Center for the Writing Arts, and drew about 40 people to Harris 108.

Physical Education

What member of the 1999 World Cup-champion U.S. women’s soccer team was known for taking off her jersey after scoring the game-winning goal?

Between 1996 and 2000, the New York Yankees won the World Series four out of the five years. What team won the remaining year?

In the 2000 Olympics, which Australian swimmer won five gold medals?

In what year did Lance Armstrong win his first Tour de France?

Music

Listen to the clip, then name the artist.

Language Arts

Name the book described by the summary.

“In a world with no poverty, no crime, no sickness and no unemployment, and where every family is happy, 12-year-old Jonas is chosen to be the community’s Receiver of Memories. Under the tutelage of the Elders, he discovers the disturbing truth about his utopian world and struggles against the weight of its hypocrisy.”

“A boy named Milo visits the Island of Conclusions (you get there by jumping), learns about time from a ticking watchdog named Tock, and even embarks on a quest to rescue Rhyme and Reason!”

“Everyone in town thinks Meg Murry is volatile and dull-witted, and that her younger brother, Charles Wallace, is dumb. People are also saying that their physicist father has run off and left their brilliant scientist mother. Spurred on by these rumors and an unearthly stranger, the tesseract-touting Mrs Whatsit, Meg and Charles Wallace and their new friend Calvin O’Keefe embark on a perilous quest through space to find their father. In doing so, they must travel behind the shadow of an evil power that is darkening the cosmos, one planet at a time.”

“Nine-year-old Cassie Logan, growing up protected by her loving family, has never had reason to suspect that any white person could consider her inferior or wish her harm. But during the course of one devastating year when her community begins to be ripped apart by angry night riders threatening African Americans, she and her three brothers come to understand why the land they own means so much to their Papa.”

“Billy and his precious coonhound pups romp relentlessly through the Ozarks, trying to “tree” the elusive raccoon. In time, the inseparable trio wins the coveted gold cup in the annual coon-hunt contest, captures the wily ghost coon, and bravely fights with a mountain lion.”

If you did well, you might want to show up for DM’s next trivia night at the 1800 Club on Feb. 5. Unfortunately for some, you have to be 21 to go; Prairie Moon’s was the first (and only) 18+ trivia night.

AJAX production by Tom Giratikanon.

Audio recording and editing by Hillary Proctor. Photography and photo editing by Emily Vaughan.

We’re starting a blog spotlighting events happening around campus – speeches, fundraisers, performances, whatever. The catch? There’s so much going on that we can’t possibly know about it all. So, if you’re a member of a student group, academic department or any sort of organization that’s holding an upcoming event on campus, leave a comment telling us about it. Our favorites will go in the blog and to the calendar on the right.

Think of it as flyering, without all the killed trees.

Sponsored by Mezcla, Alianza’s performance group.

Learn how to write a script, hire crew, rent equipment, plan the shoot, prepare for emergencies, and more.

Sponsored by the Northwestern Women Filmmakers Alliance, but open to anyone.

Free light refreshments and a prize drawing.